


Monsters are Strong (but Love is Stronger)

by nokia_writes



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: BABY TOZIER, Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, Eddie and Ridley bonding time, M/M, Movie: IT Chapter Two (2019), Reddie, Sleepy Husbands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 08:09:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21115529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nokia_writes/pseuds/nokia_writes
Summary: Ridley has a bad dream and goes to her fathers for comfort





	Monsters are Strong (but Love is Stronger)

**Author's Note:**

> hi i love ridley with all of my heart and i will not stop writing or drawing her

It’s only a little past midnight, and the lights are off, but neither of them are asleep. It’s the weekend, so why should they bother. Richie’s got his hands up Eddie’s shirt, hands clasped on his sides, thumbs brushing over the scar on his stomach. Eddie makes a sound into Richie’s mouth, his glasses pressing into his cheeks.

“You need to shave,” Eddie mutters, words partially covered up by Richie’s heavy breaths. “Gonna give me beard burn.”

Richie laughs against him, fogging up his glasses near the bottom of the lenses. “You like it, don’t deny it.” 

Eddie _does_ like it, but he bickers anyway, “It’s gonna look like I got dragged behind a truck, you dipshit.”

Richie chuckles into another kiss, hands pushing Eddie’s shirt farther up. Eddie groans, his own hands threading into the curls at the nape of his husband’s neck as Richie licks over his lips. 

He’s just about to tug off Richie’s shirt when a door opens down the hall and they both stop. They know this drill by know, “Kid’s up,” Eddie mutters as they fix their shirts and pull away from each other.

“She’s always up.” Richie sighs, but his voice is devoid of any real annoyance as he sits up.

The door to their bedroom swings open—Ridley doesn’t knock, they learned very quickly—and their daughter trots in, in one of Richie’s old tees and a pair of sleep shorts, clutching a stuffed turtle to her chest.

Eddie leans over to flick on the bedside lamp, “Hey, Riddler,” as soon as the light’s on, he realizes she’s crying, and he knows Richie sees it too.

“Woah, hey, kiddo, what happened?” Richie leans against Eddie as he helps Ridley up onto their bed. She crawls up into Eddie’s lap and curls up against his chest, wet face pressing into his shirt. Eddie hugs her close as Richie scoots closer and pulls the hair back from her face, where it’s matted to her tear streaked skin. 

Eddie and Richie share a concerned look as Eddie rubs her back and holds her tight. They let her cry for a little bit, then Eddie kisses the top of her head and leans back, trying to see her face. “Bad dream?”

She squirms, then nods. Eddie hums, and Richie puts his head on his shoulder and tuts quietly as he tucks Ridley’s hair behind her ear. She sniffs again and scrubs a hand across her eyes.

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

“Mm-mm.” Ridley shakes her head, still cowering in Eddie’s arms. He just holds her like he did when she was a baby, and nods. 

“They’re just dreams, little bug, promise.” Richie taps her nose and her eyes flick up to him, bleary and red-rimmed. “You’re safe with us.”

She sits in silence for a few more minutes, her sniffing growing less and less frequent. Every once in a while she adjusts how she’s sitting in Eddie’s lap, her turtle clutched protectively in her small arms. 

Eddie combs through her hair slowly, and her breaths become more evenly spaced. “Feeling better?”

“Yeah,” she mumbles and looks up at him. He smiles down at her. “What’s that?” She reaches up and touches the left side of his face, where the scar has been for multiple years now.

“It’s a scar.”

“Wha’s it from?”

Eddie smiles against her hands, impressed by her curiosity. “I was fighting a monster.”

Her eyes widen, and she looks at him in awe. “Really?”

He nods. _‘Wow’_ she mouths silently and touches the scar again, as Richie laughs softly from Eddie’s shoulder.

“Did you win?”

“Yeah, I won.”

Ridley nods, like she assumed it, and moves her hands back down to the stuffed turtle. “There was a monster in my dream.”

“Yeah?” Eddie asks, and Ridley nods. 

“Trying to eat me.”

Eddie hums, rubbing her back. “Well, we’d never let that happen.”

“Promise?”

Richie grins. “We promise, little bug.” He extends a hand to tickle her chin, and she giggles before grabbing his hand and peering down at his wrist. 

“What’s that?” She points to the tattoo on Richie’s wrist, to the black _R + E_ stamped in typewriter font on his skin. 

“It’s a tattoo.”

“Wha’s it mean?”

“Well, that’s an _R_ for me, and an _E_ for your dad. I got it when we got married.”

“Why?”

Eddie looks at him, eyebrows raised and waits for his answer. Richie smiles at him, then looks to their daughter and shrugs. 

“Because we’re in love.”

“Oh,” Ridley says, head tilting to the side as she squints at her father’s wrist. Then she nods, satisfied. “That’s good.”

Richie laughs at that, body shaking against Eddie’s shoulder. “Yeah, I’d say it’s pretty good.”

Ridley crawls out of Eddie’s lap and beneath the comforter, apparently ready to sleep again. Richie moves out of the way as she lays down between the two of them. Eddie turns to flick off the lap, and Ridley clutches his pajama pants in her small fist.

“Don’t!” Her eyes are wide, eyebrows raised. “The monster’ll get us.”

“Hon, you’re safe with us, okay?” Richie talks her down and combs the hair away from her face.

“But what if he gets you too?”

Something moves across Richie’s face; Eddie can see it in the way his eyebrows twitch. Eddie’s thoughts go to the scar on his stomach. 

Richie shakes his head. “He won’t, we’re pretty strong.”

Ridley still doesn’t seem entirely persuaded, but when Eddie flicks off the light, she remains quiet. Eddie and Richie lay back down, the warm silence of the room comforting. Richie throws an arm over his daughter, and his hand finds Eddie’s under the comforter. Their fingers intertwine. 

Soon, all three of them are asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> ridley and her dreams man. that monster may or may not remind her poor dads of a traumatic childhood idk man :)
> 
> drawings of ridley can be found on my art insta: https://www.instagram.com/p/B3pugy6j128/?igshid=16o8i2avmh8k


End file.
